Rutherford

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:33:20 +0100

Background?
Ernest Rutherford was born on August 30, 1871 in Nelson, New Zealand. Rutherford recieved schooling when he was young from Government schools, and when he was older he attended Nelson Collegiate School. After Nelson Collegiate School he got a scholarship to University of New Zealand, Wellington, and entered in Cantebury College. He was awarded an Exhibition cience Scholarship in 1894 which enabled him to attend Trinity College.

What did he discover?
Rutherford discovered that an atom is mostly space and that the mass is concentrated in a very small space called the nucleus in 1911.

Equipment?
Rutherford conducted the gold foil experiment. He moved very small alpha particles through a piece of gold foil. A majority of the particles passed through the foil without any problem, but a few of the particles were deflected at a big ratio. Because of the gold foil experiment Rutherford concluded that many of the particles passed through the empty space whereas a few of the particles collided with the nucleus.

History?
In 1911 Sun Yat-sen became the first president of the Republic of China. Glenn H. Curtiss flew the first successful seaplane, and the Canadian naval service became the Royal Canadian Navy.

rutherford

Rutherford